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Herbig Ae/Be Stars in nearby OB Associations
We have carried out a study of the early-type stars in nearby OBassociations spanning an age range of ~3-16 Myr, with the aim ofdetermining the fraction of stars that belong to the Herbig Ae/Be class.We studied the B, A, and F stars in the nearby (<=500 pc) OBassociations Upper Scorpius, Perseus OB2, Lacerta OB1, and Orion OB1,with membership determined from Hipparcos data. We also included in ourstudy the early-type stars in the Trumpler 37 cluster, part of the CepOB2 association. We obtained spectra for 440 Hipparcos stars in theseassociations, from which we determined accurate spectral types, visualextinctions, effective temperatures, luminosities and masses, usingHipparcos photometry. Using colors corrected for reddening, we find thatthe Herbig Ae/Be stars and the classical Be (CBe) stars occupy clearlydifferent regions in the JHK diagram. Thus, we use the location on theJHK diagram, as well as the presence of emission lines and of strong 12μm flux relative to the visual, to identify the Herbig Ae/Be stars inthe associations. We find that the Herbig Ae/Be stars constitute a smallfraction of the early-type stellar population even in the youngerassociations. Comparing the data from associations with different agesand assuming that the near-infrared excess in the Herbig Ae/Be starsarises from optically thick dusty inner disks, we determined theevolution of the inner disk frequency with age. We find that the innerdisk frequency in the age range 3-10 Myr in intermediate-mass stars islower than that in the low-mass stars (<1 Msolar) inparticular, it is a factor of ~10 lower at ~3 Myr. This indicates thatthe timescales for disk evolution are much shorter in theintermediate-mass stars, which could be a consequence of more efficientmechanisms of inner disk dispersal (viscous evolution, dust growth, andsettling toward the midplane).
| Digitization and Scientific Exploitation of the Italian and Vatican Astronomical Plate Archives
There is a widespread interest to digitize the precious informationcontained in the astronomical plate archives, both for the preservationof their content and for its fast distribution to all interestedresearchers in order to achieve their better scientific exploitation.This paper presents the first results of our large-scale project todigitize the archive of plates of the Italian Astronomical Observatoriesand of the Specola Vaticana. Similar systems, composed by commercialflat-bed retro-illuminated scanners plus dedicated personal computersand acquisition and analysis software, have been installed in allparticipating Institutes. Ad-hoc codes have been developed to acquirethe data, to test the suitability of the machines to our scientificneeds, and to reduce the digital data in order to extract theastrometric, photometric and spectroscopic content. Two more elementscomplete the overall project: the provision of high quality BVRI CCDsequences in selected fields with the Campo Imperatore telescopes, andthe distribution of the digitized information to all interestedresearchers via the Web. The methods we have derived in the course ofthis project have been already applied successfully to plates taken byother Observatories, for instance at Byurakan and at Hamburg.
| A HIPPARCOS Census of the Nearby OB Associations
A comprehensive census of the stellar content of the OB associationswithin 1 kpc from the Sun is presented, based on Hipparcos positions,proper motions, and parallaxes. It is a key part of a long-term projectto study the formation, structure, and evolution of nearby young stellargroups and related star-forming regions. OB associations are unbound``moving groups,'' which can be detected kinematically because of theirsmall internal velocity dispersion. The nearby associations have a largeextent on the sky, which traditionally has limited astrometricmembership determination to bright stars (V<~6 mag), with spectraltypes earlier than ~B5. The Hipparcos measurements allow a majorimprovement in this situation. Moving groups are identified in theHipparcos Catalog by combining de Bruijne's refurbished convergent pointmethod with the ``Spaghetti method'' of Hoogerwerf & Aguilar.Astrometric members are listed for 12 young stellar groups, out to adistance of ~650 pc. These are the three subgroups Upper Scorpius, UpperCentaurus Lupus, and Lower Centaurus Crux of Sco OB2, as well as VelOB2, Tr 10, Col 121, Per OB2, alpha Persei (Per OB3), Cas-Tau, Lac OB1,Cep OB2, and a new group in Cepheus, designated as Cep OB6. Theselection procedure corrects the list of previously known astrometricand photometric B- and A-type members in these groups and identifiesmany new members, including a significant number of F stars, as well asevolved stars, e.g., the Wolf-Rayet stars gamma^2 Vel (WR 11) in Vel OB2and EZ CMa (WR 6) in Col 121, and the classical Cepheid delta Cep in CepOB6. Membership probabilities are given for all selected stars. MonteCarlo simulations are used to estimate the expected number of interloperfield stars. In the nearest associations, notably in Sco OB2, thelater-type members include T Tauri objects and other stars in the finalpre-main-sequence phase. This provides a firm link between the classicalhigh-mass stellar content and ongoing low-mass star formation. Detailedstudies of these 12 groups, and their relation to the surroundinginterstellar medium, will be presented elsewhere. Astrometric evidencefor moving groups in the fields of R CrA, CMa OB1, Mon OB1, Ori OB1, CamOB1, Cep OB3, Cep OB4, Cyg OB4, Cyg OB7, and Sct OB2, is inconclusive.OB associations do exist in many of these regions, but they are eitherat distances beyond ~500 pc where the Hipparcos parallaxes are oflimited use, or they have unfavorable kinematics, so that the groupproper motion does not distinguish it from the field stars in theGalactic disk. The mean distances of the well-established groups aresystematically smaller than the pre-Hipparcos photometric estimates.While part of this may be caused by the improved membership lists, arecalibration of the upper main sequence in the Hertzsprung-Russelldiagram may be called for. The mean motions display a systematicpattern, which is discussed in relation to the Gould Belt. Six of the 12detected moving groups do not appear in the classical list of nearby OBassociations. This is sometimes caused by the absence of O stars, but inother cases a previously known open cluster turns out to be (part of) anextended OB association. The number of unbound young stellar groups inthe solar neighborhood may be significantly larger than thoughtpreviously.
| The Henry Draper Extension Charts: A catalogue of accurate positions, proper motions, magnitudes and spectral types of 86933 stars
The Henry Draper Extension Charts (HDEC), published in the form offinding charts, provide spectral classification for some 87000 starsmostly between 10th and 11th magnitude. This data, being highlyvaluable, as yet was practically unusable for modern computer-basedastronomy. An earlier pilot project (Roeser et al. 1991) demonstrated apossibility to convert this into a star catalogue, using measurements ofcartesian coordinates of stars on the charts and positions of theAstrographic Catalogue (AC) for subsequent identification. We presenthere a final HDEC catalogue comprising accurate positions, propermotions, magnitudes and spectral classes for 86933 stars of the HenryDraper Extension Charts.
| Interstellar extinction in the direction of the open cluster IC 348 and the Per OB2 association
The relationship between interstellar extinction and distance in thedirection of dark clouds in the areas around the open cluster IC 348 andthe association Per OB2 is determined using the results of photoelectricphotometry of 189 stars in the Vilnius photometric system. Two absorbinglayers are found. The nearest layer, covering the whole area around IC348, shows the mean extinction A(V) of about 0.7 mag. It begins at thedistance of 160 pc and probably is an extension of the Taurus darkclouds to the northwest. The second absorbing layer has the form of achain of dark condensations named L1468, L1470, and L1471 and is at 260pc distance. This layer has a higher density, its mean extinction beingabout 2.0 mag. The cluster IC 348 is at about the same distance and isphysically related to the dark cloud L1470. The distance of the Per OB2association is found to be 340 pc and the mean extinction of its membersis 0.95 mag. A model of the spatial distribution of the Perseus andTaurus dark clouds based on photometric distance determinations in thisand previous papers is proposed. Six stars in the IC 348 area aresuspected to have emission in the H-alpha line.
| X Persei - Optical polarization variation on the 580 day binary-like period
Observations of periodicities in the optical polarization of the weakX-ray source X Persei are reported. Polarization was measured in the Vband 400 times over the course of 356 nights during 1977-1982. The Q andU Stokes parameters derived from the measurements show a definitevariability with a typical amplitude of 0.1%, which is strongest atperiods greater than 100 days. In particular, a strong peak is observedwith a period of 297 days, consistent with the second-harmonic componentof the known 580-day radial velocity cycle. A component with 590-dayperiodicity is not ruled out by the observations, although it was notdetected. Observations imply the 580-day period to be an effect oforbital or rotational processes, with the corotating scattering bodyeither close to the light source or very large in extent, and a systeminclination close to 80 deg.
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Observation and Astrometry data
| Constellation: | Ταύρος |
| Right ascension: | 03h54m20.69s |
| Declination: | +30°59'54.8" |
| Apparent magnitude: | 9.56 |
| Proper motion RA: | 4.2 |
| Proper motion Dec: | -10.4 |
| B-T magnitude: | 10.143 |
| V-T magnitude: | 9.609 |
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